Want To Hijack A Plane? Get A Job With The TSA

In a lengthy investigation into security breaches at the Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport, Dallas-Ft. Worth police made a pretty interesting discovery: The easiest way to subvert security measures designed to prevent hijackings or terrorist acts inside airports is to join the ranks of those hired to do the enforcement.

A supervisor with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is among more than 100 workers on a long list of security officers, industry executives, flight attendants and service contractors alleged to have abused their security clearance privileges over the past two years at the Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport, helping friends and family members bypass the dragnet of safety checks designed to stop criminals and contraband from making it onto planes.

That dragnet is only as effective as the people managing it, and the motives for the alleged abuses can seem like anything from the simply corrupt — “perks” for families of pilots and airline CEOs who don’t want to wait in long lines, for example — to the inscrutable, such as the unnamed TSA supervisor who allegedly escorted another unnamed worker through an employee door for reasons that aren’t known.

NBC 5 in Dallas reported the numbers:

[R]ecords show most of the recent security violations at DFW were caused by workers with security badges.

Out of more than 140 confirmed security violations in two years — at least 106 were linked to badge holding employees and vendors.

[Airport spokesman David] Magana said the airport is confident its security system catches the vast majority of violators and if any are sneaking through, “that number is very small.”

Aviation Security Consultant Chaim Koppel suspects for every one worker who gets caught as many as two or three abusing their badges manage to get through.

The airport has more than 50,000 employees. That’s a big sea of anonymity to shelter a few rogue TSA agents who sought out the job as the easiest path to hatching a terrorist plan. And if security abuses are going on at DFW, you can bet the same thing’s happening in major airports across the United States.

As one former screener explains, it’s easy to get an entry-level TSA job, and no one’s really watching you once you’ve donned your uniform and affixed your badge.

If you and your buddies wanted to commandeer a plane (whether for jihad or for a joyride), wouldn’t you rather sidestep the laborious terrorist 101 rigmarole in favor of being wined and dined by the Department of Homeland Security’s recruitment process — and rewarded with the sterling security clearance that awaits?

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Ben Bullard

Reconciling the concept of individual sovereignty with conscientious participation in the modern American political process is a continuing preoccupation for staff writer Ben Bullard. A former community newspaper writer, Bullard has closely observed the manner in which well-meaning small-town politicians and policy makers often accept, unthinkingly, their increasingly marginal role in shaping the quality of their own lives, as well as those of the people whom they serve. He argues that American public policy is plagued by inscrutable and corrupt motives on a national scale, a fundamental problem which individuals, families and communities must strive to solve. This, he argues, can be achieved only as Americans rediscover the principal role each citizen plays in enriching the welfare of our Republic.

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dan

the only car/horse thief I ever met was a baggage handler…and the only child molester was a TSA screener.

I’d say it’s also easier for terrorists to gain access by having diplomatic immunity :Saudi national Abdullahrahman Ali al Harbi/aka Jr. bin Laden of Boston -bombing reknown comes to mind (the only suspect in the vicinity of the second/non sanctioned bomb that we know of…)

Jake Thomas

I don’t agree, we all know that government workers are the smartest and hardest workers of anyone in the workforce. We also know that the hiring people of the TSA turn over every stone and will not accept anything less than the most outstanding individuals for TSA jobs.

petsnpeopletoo

Well, My husband just puked on this one……lol….What an uninformed person you are…….WAKE UP!!!

James Crooke

I am retired military and I applied for one of these positions. I was not even considered. I can however, tell you some of the bums that were hired.

The GLB

You are right, I tremble in awe at the aura of the awesome intellect that emanates from every TSA worker that reiterates the tired meme that these machines are NOT x-rays and will NOT harm you.

There intellect is so great that they can counter every point in the Johns Hopkins’ report.

They can make the case that Michael Chertoff’s involvement in the convenient introduction of backscatter x-ray machines to the airport is NOT Fascism.

They can prove that the Fruit-of Kaboom bomber was NOT assisted on to flight 253 by a Well-Dressed Man, and that event had nothing to do with the fact that all of the backscatter machines were already built and ready to be installed in airports to further erode the Liberties of Americans.

Oh yes, they are so smart that they have almost attained god-like status.

WTS/JAY

Jake: We also know that the hiring people of the TSA turn over every stone and will not accept anything less than the most outstanding individuals for TSA jobs.

And they’re so top notch that we pay them “minimum-wage”…yeah, the cream of the crop, that’s for sure. But then again, most perverts don’t care how little the money is, just as long as they get to grope strangers. Why just recently, a four year old girl was groped by one one of these outstanding individuals; the best of the best, as you say. Rumour has it, they prefer groping little children the most…the younger the better. Hmm…perfect cover for a pedophile, i would think!

Michael Shreve

Anyone DOUBT that there are TERRORIST on the TSA payroll.

ChuckS123

Slightly off, but I wonder if people who look like Muslims are screened more or less. I suspect less, for fear of being called Islamophobic. I’d think everybody would be afraid to pat down a woman in a burka. Anybody who flys, please observe how Muslilms and everybody else is treated

Stuffy Barfmore

So tell me, what does a Muslim look like? Oh yes, the women wearing head scarves — but what about the men? The underwear guy was African, the Sarnaev brothers Caucasian.

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